How to Install Joomla! to Your Web Host Via FTP

Joomla! is one of the most powerful content management systems (CMS) on the market today. From the most basic personal website to e-commerce portals, Joomla! enables people with the most basic knowledge of HTML to create powerful, scalable websites to suit their needs. Joomla! rocks!

The toughest part of Joomla! is figuring out how to get to install Joomla! to your host server. One method for installing Joomla! involves the use of Fantasico in your cpanel. This is not necessarily the best option for installing Joomla!, simply because, it is not always up to date with releases.

This Joomla! tutorial details an alternative method for installing Joomla! without having to worry about this. You will find an accompanying slideshow for this tutorial at this link: www.associatedcontent.com/slideshow/1409/how_to_install_joomla_to_your_web_host.html

How to Install Joomla! to Your Web Host Via FTP
First Things First
First, you need to download the latest Joomla! package, which will come updated with all of the bug fixes and patches. You will find this package at Joomla!'s official website: www.Joomla.org.

Second, once you have downloaded the package, you will need to decide where on your domain you want it installed. This can either be www.yourdomainname.com or www.yourdomainname.com/Joomla.

Third, with your selection made, decompress the Joomla! package and upload it to your selected directory using a FTP client.

Fourth, log-in to your Cpanel account and go to MySQL databases.
*Click on add db and type in the name of your database.
*Click on Add User and type in your username and password.
*Assign the desired privileges for your administrative account.
*Close Cpanel

You will now open your web browser and type in the website address where you installed the domain. The first installation page should appear.

Now for the Fun Part!
Step #1
Database configuration.
In the first step is the data base configuration menu:
* The hostname is "localhost"
* Fill in the name of your database and input the username and password.
* The MySQL prefix is "jos_"
* If this is your first installation, make sure you click the box Install Sample data.
* Click Next
* Click OK to verify if all your information is correct.

Step #2
Next, simply type in the name of your website and click Next.

Step #3
Confirm your URL, pathname, email address, and password.

Step #4
You now need to delete the installation directory with your FTP client. Once this is done, highlight all of the configuration files, right click and copy.

Step #5
This is the final step!
Paste the copied files to the configuration.php file, and Voila! Your Joomla! site is installed!

You can now view it by clicking on the View Site button.

The administration panel for your new site is at http://www.yourdomain.com/administrator/

The Joomla! package is designed to be as modular as possible, allowing for extensions and other integrations to be made easily. The most common extensions are "plug-ins." Joomla extensions create new functionality for Joomla. There are more than 2,000 Joomla extensions, which are available at this link extensions.joomla.org/index.php

I will have several more Joomla! tutorials, slideshows and videos soon, many of which will cover these plug ins, so keep an eye out! Meanwhile, you may find the accompanying slideshow for this tutorial at this link: www.associatedcontent.com/slideshow/1409/how_to_install_joomla_to_your_web_host.html

Useful Links
www.joomla.org/
www.joomlashack.com/
joomlacode.org/